Blake Walston Focusing on Competing in 2024

Left-hander Blake Walston is going through his second camp with the Diamondbacks. The former first round pick was added to the 40-man roster in the offseason, with the team still high on his ability to start big league games in the future. Last year he put up a 4.52 ERA in 27 starts with Triple-A Reno, but with bad peripherals as he put up 104 strikeouts to 93 walks in 149 1/3 innings. Command was an issue, especially early on in the season where he had nearly as many walks as strikeouts in each start.

"You can make whatever excuses you want, but I just think there was a lot going on that I was trying to work on, whether it was certain pitches or deliveries with my body that my head was spinning. I didn't know what to do. And then towards the end, once I got out there and told myself just to go out there and compete and don't think about the mechanics, that's when everything kind of came together."

Walston compared the situation to trying to improve a golf swing. He said that some of his best days come when he doesn't play for a couple months and just goes out there and plays.

The main issue that affected Walston in 2023 was not only a velocity drop from 2022, but his secondary stuff also taking a step backwards. In 2023, his cutter blended with his slider after the organization asked him to develop an 85 MPH breaking pitch.

"It took me a whole year in Triple-A trying to figure it out. It was meshing with a bunch of other pitches, but finally kind of came to the conclusion those pitches needed to be separate. I need to have my cutter at 85+ MPH and then my slider at whatever it is."

Walston isn't overly worried about his fastball velocity, which sat 90-92 in bullpens and live BP this spring. With a fastball sitting in the low 90s, it's important for him to have multiple quality secondary pitches to stick as a starter. Having a better feel for his slider and cutter, and not having the two pitches blend together, should give him additional looks. 

At his best, he can command five different pitches from a 6'5" frame and a very repeatable delivery due to high athleticism. Opportunities might not come knocking at the big league level early in the season, but it will be interesting to see how this new version of Walston performs in his second stint in Reno. We'll get a chance to see him on the mound later today against the Oakland A's.